Stomping killer competent to be executed, judge rules

Allan Turne, Houston Chronicle

By Allan Turner

Updated 12:40 am, Wednesday, January 22, 2014

CONTACT FILED: SUSAN BASSO
Capital murder defendant Susan Basso, the woman accused of leading a group that killed a mentally impaired man, appears in the 232nd Court on 8-16-99. No testimony was given even though the jury was sworn in today. HOUCHRON CAPTION (08/18/1999): Basso. HOUCHRON CAPTION (08/20/1999): None. HOUCHRON CAPTION (08/28/1999): Prosecutors began presenting testimony on Friday in the punishment phase of Susan Basso's capital murder trial that painter her as a sinister con artist with several aliases. HOUCHRON CAPTION (09/02/1999): Susan Basso, 45, was painted in court as a cruel manipulator who abused her children and preyed on weak-minded people.
Photo: John Everett, Staff

A state district judge on Wednesday ruled that convicted killer Suzanne Basso understands that she will be executed and why, moving the one-time seamstress a step closer to Texas' Huntsville death house.

Basso, 59, is to be put to death on Feb. 5 for the 1998 stomping murder of Louis "Buddy" Musso. also 59. Trial testimony showed Basso lured the New Jersey man to Texas with the promise of marriage, then led five other people in the deadly attack in a plan to claim life insurance benefits. Musso was kicked with steel-toed shoes and beaten with a baseball bats and belts. His body, unrecognizable after the brutal attack, was found near a ditch in Harris County.

Basso's attorney, Winston Cochran called witnesses who testified of the woman's allegedly delusional claims that a nurse secreted a snake in a hollowed book, that she was one of triplets born in the office of a Catholic bishop and that she was a friend of former New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. Basso claimed that she was left paralyzed as a result of a beating by guards at the Harris County Jail, but Cochran said she suffers from a chronic degenerative condition. Although American-born, Basso offered her testimony in an often unintelligible accent, her voice rising in a wail when challenged with terse interrogation.

Cochran argued that Basso was sufficiently delusional, and unable to comprehend her coming execution or its reason. Keel's rejection of his argument, however, came as little surprise. She had indicated at the end of the December hearing that she was inclined to find Basso competent.

Seeking to avoid death

Cochran said Wednesday that he had not been notified of the judge's decision. Later in the day, the lawyer was driving to Austin to file a petition with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles seeking a 90-day reprieve or a commutation of the death sentence to life in prison.

Basso's conviction occurred before the state enacted a life without parole law. If her sentence is commuted to life, she would have to serve a minimum of 40 years, receiving credit for the 15 years already served.

Last week, Cochran filed petitions for a stay of execution with Keel's court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, claiming that trial testimony of former Harris County medical examiner Dr. Paul Shrode, who later worked in Cincinnati and El Paso, should be reviewed.

Testimony questioned

In 2010, an Ohio death sentence was commuted to life in prison after Shrode's supervisor testified that the pathologist's trial testimony was not based on science. That same year, El Paso County commissioners fired Shrode from his position as the county's chief medical examiner, saying he had lied on his resume.

Basso would be fifth woman executed in Texas since the state resumed executions in 1982, and the second Harris County killer to be executed this year.